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User blog:Stevenyuko/Otto's Device Ideas
My Device Ideas These are Three Ideas I came up with today for my Device. My favorite is #3. For some reason I can't get a good representation of the colors when I scan them in. Everything looses all its color and become drab. Anywho, on the originals, the colors are nice and rich! Let me know what yall think? Feedback I like these, particularly number 3, but... * Questions. What are your favorite elements? The horn, the griffin, the bordure? Can you tell me what each color and each charge, line of division, or other heraldic element means to you? (Hint: if it doesn't mean something significant to you, get rid of it.) This is not purely a rhetorical question, I'd really like to know what the more meaningful elements are here for, so I can better help you end up with a device you will love for years to come. ::I really don't care about the inescutcheon, that will go away in my next redraw. I do like the harp, horn and griffon. I chose the harp and horn because I feel it best displays what I want out of the SCA. It best gives character to my persona that I want to portray. The griffon was added because its actually part of my real family Chrest (only the top half is visible on my family crest as its bottom is hidden behind a field. The colors for the fields are Glues and Vert. The Charges are all OR/argtent, and the Bordure is Argtent. I just seem to like that color combination. I'm not really hot on the whole GLUES/OR fields hence why I went with Vert/Glues. OF course this is all in regards to my number 3 design. I did use a different green marker to color the second one, only because on the actual drawing, the green was very dark and it made it hard to make the countercharged griffon out.Stevenyuko :::Try this exercise. If you had to choose between a) the horn and the harp, b) the griffin, c) the griffin and the horn, d) the griffin and the harp, or e) your shield division/color scheme, which would you choose? I'm not saying you do have to make this choice, but if you did, which really matters the most to you? Which will matter the most to you 5 years from now? It's like getting a tattoo, you'll most likely be stuck with the results whether you grow to love it more or live to regret it. If you like a tripart design, you could do Divided per fess gules Or and vert... or for a more distinctly German design, Bei Göpel rot grön und gelb... (Per pall reversed gules vert and Or...) a Göpel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_heraldry#Terminology here.] :::I would also give a few words of caution regarding using elements of one's "family crest" or the like. You want to be sure you have solid sources to back up any notion of a relation to an existing coat of arms. Some sources that sound reliable are in fact notoriously unreliable. If you or someone in your family has carefully documented a genealogy tracing your ancestry to an individual who is documented to have born a particular coat of arms, you may have a valid family history. But beware, this alone does not entitle one to a coat of arms, as coat armory was NOT typically passed down through the generations except from one armigerous person to another (i.e. both ancestor and descendant have the right to use and display their arms) and then only if properly marshalled to display cadency. If more than a generation or two have passed since an ancestor bore a valid coat of arms, all rights to any ancestors' coat armory is probably long dead and buried. That doesn't mean don't use a griffin, just be wary of the notion that it "belongs" to your family any more than the fief that once went with it and has since been sold, divided, resold, bulldozed over and made into suburban housing. If that sounds depressing, I can sympathize. I was once told what my "family coat of arms" was by someone calling themselves the Historical Research Center or something like that. They sell very nice looking and expensive, but poorly researched, regalia blazoned with "your family coat of arms". More often than not, however, such companies (known as "bucket shops") simply pass off a coat of arms as the "family crest" of all Johnsons merely because somebody named Johnson bore such a coat of arms in the 18th century, but there may have also been a dozen other, unrelated, armigerous Johnsons, and who knows which of them was your ancestor. Enough said about that. * Critiques. The inescutcheon is not likely to pass because it is too small for anything on it to be recognizable from 100 yards, unless it is substantially larger. The chains in idea 1 may be unworkable for similar concern. A bordure should extend all the way to the very edge of the shield (i.e. no red and green showing underneath). Idea 3 may well be a passable device if you get rid of the inescutcheon and bordure (possibly with the bordure). ::In regards to the Bordure, I was doing some research and found on the west kingdom heraldry page that a bordure that doesn't reach the edge of the shield permitted and is refered to as a Tressure/orle. I also saw it refered to as an "excutcheon void". So maybe this seperation would be permitted (also my favorite part of that design. :-( ) I will also make the griffon smaller and towards the bottom and place the horn and harp on opposite fields possible countercharged or leave them both or, havn't decided yet. Will redraw and repost. Stevenyuko '' :::An orle should be of equal width to the space between it and the edge of the shield. A tressure is something slightly different. You might have a look at this example of an orle. If it is an orle (not a bordure) then yes, the colors beneath would show around the edges. Also, I would try to avoid drawing the griffin any smaller than it is. It must fill the space of the field it occupies, and it must be recognizable from 100 yards. Have you thought of placing a red griffin on a gold shield and a silver horn on the griffin? What I mean is, the horn is placed in front of the griffin, so that it is entirely contained within the outline of the griffin, the way the stars are placed on the eagle in my badge. It's just another way you can keep the griffin big and bold without sacrificing the horn. Use your practice sheets and see how many different ideas you can come up with to incorporate your favorite elements. Then sleep on it and see what sticks. * '''Tips'. This form of division (examples 2 & 3) is a combination of chapé and per pale that I don't remember seeing elsewhere (though there's a lot out there I haven't seen!), but chapé arms tend to look Spanish or Italian, in my experience. For more period-looking arms, you might limit your arms to only one division (i.e. per pale or chapé or a bordure but no two of these—or you might think of quarterly or per fess), or for more German-looking arms, you might have a look at this German heraldry page which demonstrates how to create a shield parted per linden leaf, per fleur-de-lis, per crook, or per spear. It's an exciting and distinctly German style. ::Actually I got the design for this particular division from sca website as well. His original read this way; '' :::"Per pale azure and argent chapé ployé, two lymphads and a laurel wreath counterchanged, and in augmentation in chief on an escutcheon azure, four crescents argent conjoined in saltire points outward, within a bordure Or." '' ::Of course mine is of a different colors and I added the Bordure, but it was an approved with this division. I liked the design, changed the charges, add the bordure, and placed the two charges in the upper fields. After doing some checking I found out that the upper divisions usually don't have charges in them so thats why I will move them down and make the griffon about half the size.Stevenyuko '' :::That is interesting indeed! I like it, I just don't know if you care any about regional heraldry. The suggestions I am making and the questions I am asking are not intended to push you toward or away from anything. I just hope I can help you figure out what you really want, so you end up with a coat of arms you will grow to love more and more throughout the years. Just keep sketching out your ideas on the practice sheets, and you will eventually settle on something. Remember the KISS method. Don't make your arms any more complex than they really have to be. Sometimes a coat of arms can be quite simple and yet quite clever, as I hope I have shown you in Reinmar von Zweter's arms and in the German shield parted per linden leaf. In heraldry, simple yet clever is always best. And it makes one's arms memorable. Have you thought of attempting canting arms? Those can be a lot of fun too. I suppose a "chessman" (i.e. a chess piece) would be the canting arms of Spilman, ja? What do you think of such an idea? Wilhelm Meis ('Quatsch!) 05:01, October 10, 2009 (UTC) * '''Suggestions. What do you think of these ideas?: :*Gules, flaunched vert, a lute between two horns Or. (i.e. a red shield with green flaunches, a gold lute on the red vertically and a gold horn on each green flaunch) :or, turning back to the arms from the Schieblersches Wappenbuch that were your source for the lute, but without the billets: :*Gules, a lute between two horns Or. In this case, there are no flaunches and the lute would be oriented per bend, with one horn above and one below. (i.e. a red shield with a gold lute with the head in the upper left corner, one gold horn above to the right and one below to the left.) :I hope this helps! Wilhelm Meis (Quatsch!) 09:01, October 8, 2009 (UTC) October 17 device Just wanted to post the picture and the correct blazon for the device I drew today.Stevenyuko :Okay, so here is a proposed blazon for the device you showed me yesterday: :Or, on a pile per chessman section sable a harp of the first, overall a bend crancelin enarched gules charged with six horns of the first. ::or :Or, on a pile per chessman section sable a harp Or, a semé of horns Or upon a bend crancelin enarched gules. :Someone more experienced with writing blazons for SCA heraldry may be able to help you determine the best way to blazon this, or you can just take a shot at it and let the heralds reviewing your submission adjust it as necessary. It's a beautiful device, by the way, and rather clever. Good work! Wilhelm Meis (Quatsch!) 01:55, October 18, 2009 (UTC) Here's another idea, with even less complexity, and you might play around with some variations of this one. I would blazon this one Per chessman Or and sable, a bend crancelin enarched gules and a harp Or. Good luck! Yours in Service, Wilhelm Meis (Quatsch!) 21:21, October 18 17Nov2009 Idea Ok, Since my previous idea got completely shot down here is a device I worked on today. Let me know what you think.